Lakeview, Moody race into history
REGIONAL FINALS
The senior helped the Bulldogs capture their first regional title.
By JOE SCALZO
Vindicator Sports staff
RAVENNA — With a clipboard in one hand and a pen in the other, Lakeview High boys track coach Mark Swinning wore a path from the results table to the finish line (and back again ... several times), sweating out each event as the Bulldogs inched closer to the first regional title in school history.
“I was trying to make sure my numbers were the same as what the meet officials had,” he said.
Then, on the second-to-last race of Saturday’s meet, Lakeview senior Tyler Ames took matters into his own hands and ended the suspense, placing third in the 3200-meter run to give Lakeview an insurmountable 121‚Ñ2-point lead.
“It was a bit of a relief,” said Swinning, whose team won the Division II crown over Peninsula Woodridge, 53-411‚Ñ2. “Tyler’s whole training, everything he’s done all year has been geared toward getting him to Columbus. I was pretty confident if he placed in the top four, we had a shot.
“With him finishing third and scoring six points, that was just icing on the cake for us.”
Although Ames clinched it, senior Ben Moody was the biggest factor. The Cornell University football recruit broke a 19-year-old regional record in the 110-meter hurdles, finished second in the 100 (despite getting a brief five-minute break between the two races), second in the long jump and anchored the winning 4x100 relay.
“You can’t really ask for more from your senior year,” said Moody. “Coming in and being able to pull some of the things off that I’ve done, it’s just a lot of hard work paying off.”
Moody lowered his school record in the 110 hurdles to a scorching 13.83, erasing the old regional record of 14.09 set by Rayen’s Pat Humphrey in 1990.
He’s within reach of the state record of 13.71, set by Dayton Christian’s Lamar Hill.
“I was getting that [regional] record,” said Moody, whose previous-best time was 13.97 and who has the state record memorized. “I wasn’t really focused on whether I came in first, second, whatever. That [the record] was what I was coming here to do and I’m going to take it all the way down to state.”
Can he go faster?
“Oh yeah,” he said. “There were some goof-ups over some hurdles. There were two or three I felt I could have done better.”
Senior Heath Harris finished third in the 1600 — his time of 4:20.58 was five seconds than his previous best — as the Bulldogs qualified six athletes to Columbus.
Although Lakeview has had a strong track program for years — much of the credit goes to former coach Tom Pavlansky, who turned the program over to Swinning this season — this was its biggest breakthrough.
“It’s an honor to have worked with these kids,” said Swinning. “These seniors have been working for four years, running in the weight room and doing everything they can possibly do to get where they’re at now.
“It’s been a blessing.”
scalzo@vindy.com